


Just Roll With It

by melecs



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Cute, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Rollerblades & Rollerskates, seungkwan is the one crying on the floor, vernon is on a rollerblading team, wow that's a tag??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:57:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8032282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melecs/pseuds/melecs
Summary: Being a competitive rollerblader is all fun and games until you trip over people crying on the floor.





	Just Roll With It

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the roller rink-arcade-laser tag fusion place in my town. I know not all the other members were directly mentioned, but imagine they are either Seungkwan’s friends or working there.

 

Hansol slips his blades on with practiced ease, tying the worn laces by raw muscle memory. He stands up with only a little bit of wobbling, but recovers quickly and says, “Hey, Mingyu, stand up for a sec.”

Mingyu does so, with a dejected sigh like he knows exactly what is coming. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

“I’m taller than you.” Hansol’s grin is cheeky, “You can sit back down now.”

“Hilarious, you’re so funny.” Mingyu shakes his head and plops down on the bench to finish tying his own blades. Jeonghan seems to really enjoy it, however, nearly spitting up his soda with laughter.

A small voice pipes up, shy and frustrated. “Um, guys, how do you do this? Someone help me, please.” It’s Chan, the new member, who even brought knee-pads with him. Hansol is always grateful for new additions to the blading team, but Chan doesn’t have any experience. He looks like a puppy exposed to big dogs for the first time.

Their club leader, Seungcheol, kneels to takes a look at Chan’s handiwork. “Your blades are on the wrong feet,” he says, “but good job with the laces.”

It makes Hansol remember his first time out on the rink, treating the varnished wood beneath him like a pit that could swallow him whole. He’d been on skates then, too afraid to try for wheels in one row, but today Chan is jumping right in.

After Mingyu finishes (‘ _Look who’s tallest again, Hansolie,_ ’) and Chan gets assistance from Seungcheol, Hansol hits the rink. There’s something so exhilarating about blading that Hansol can never put into words. It’s like another dimension, one where the earth is made of slick hardwood and there’s a disco ball in place of the sun.

He loves everything about it: the cheesy outdated music, the low hum of the arcade room behind him, the young wall-huggers, the boy crying on the sidelines—

Hansol doesn’t register this last part, but rather trips over it as he goes for a wide turn. He hasn’t fallen on his blades in at least three years (excluding the time Jeonghan tied his laces together), so face-planting comes as a bit of a shock. And there’s someone’s arm beneath him, and a voice sobbing out, ‘ _You asshole, can’t you see this is my shame corner?’_

Once Hansol sits up, he reaches a hand out to the stranger without really thinking. But then comes an obstinate, “I don’t want to get up—” _sob_ —“I have unfinished business here.”

Maybe the most shocking part is that this isn’t a young boy. No, he’s old, about the same age as Hansol, with doe-eyes and flushed cheeks and lips pulled back in gross snivels. Rental skates are secured tightly around his ankles, the neon day-pass taped around his wrist. And Hansol hasn’t been in this situation before, but there’s a first time for everything. “Uh, I don’t know if the roller rink is the best place to set up your shame corner.”

The boy fans his eyes as if he’s worried about imaginary mascara running, then sniffs a bit. “All I wanted was to go to the movies. Is that too much to ask?”

“No, but seriously—”

“My friends _suck_. I don’t know how to roller skate! But they all said, ‘Poor Seungkwan, we’ll help you out,’ and did they? _Did they help me?”_

Hansol takes a wild guess: “No?”

“You’re fucking right they didn’t! One of them’s probably eloping with the guy behind the snack counter, and the other two just _had_ to start a heated air hockey tournament.” That seems to get him worked up again, and the tears start flowing faster. “I can’t untie these stupid hell-shoes. My fingers are too small and cute for this.”

If the boy—Seungkwan, did he say?—didn’t seem so frustrated, Hansol would have laughed. Instead, he takes Seungkwan by the laces and says, “Okay, deep breaths. My name’s Hansol, and I’ve untied a few knots in my day.”

“Well, finally,” Seungkwan dabs at his tears with the neck of his shirt, “You’re more useful than Mr. We-Only-Untie-Skates-That-Aren’t-Attached-to-People from the rental desk.”

At that moment, Mingyu zips by, laughing his pretty little head off and calling, ‘ _Oh, what did you do this time?’_ over his shoulder. “Sorry,” Hansol shakes his head and concentrates on the left bow. This would be easier if Seungkwan hadn’t double-knotted. “I’ve got some stupid friends, too.”

“At least you guys are loyal to each other and don’t suck at skating.”

“Blading.”

Seungkwan pats beneath his eyes again. He really has a unique appearance, in a good way—everything soft and inviting. “Huh?”

“We’re on a competitive blading team.”

The boy gets this look on his face like he’s just heard a confusing punchline, eyes huge and mouth fixed in a frown, then after a moment his face splits apart and his head is thrown back in dramatic wheezes. “That’s hilarious!”

“What?” Hansol asks, almost finished with the left skate. Seungkwan looks much better when he’s smiling, perhaps even charming.

He slaps a hand on Hansol’s shoulder as if to brace himself. “That’s the funniest thing ever. Like wow, what a nerd.”

So Hansol takes his fingers off the laces and says, “Like crying on the floor of a roller rink is any better?”

“I’m not _nerdy_ , though,” Seungkwan explains, “I’m just emotional. Please finish untying these, oh my god.”

He does finish, and even slips the skates off Seungkwan’s feet like some reverse-Cinderella. His socks are printed with polka-dots and it’s oddly adorable. Seungkwan takes Hansol’s offered hand and hoists himself up, almost making Hansol lose his balance with the momentum.

“Don’t get your feet run over,” Hansol grins at the well-rehearsed eye-roll from Seungkwan. The boy holds Hansol’s hand in his left and the rental skates in his right, allowing Hansol to tow him out of the rink as he slides on his socks.

And then Seungkwan all but marches up to the rental desk, slams the old skates down, and says, “ _Now_ they’re off my feet, so take them away!”

Two minutes later and they’re sitting at a plastic table, Hansol still with this blades on. “You should take those off and play laser tag with me,” Seungkwan suggests, “You’re not _super_ uncool. Plus, we can kick some ten-year-olds’ butts.”

“I’m here for practice. We have a competition coming up.”

“Whatever,” Seungkwan looks nice when he’s not crying. He has the kind of face that if he said something ridiculous, Hansol would still trust it was true. “But you tripped over me, so now I’m your responsibility.”

Hansol glances back at the rink. There’s Mingyu doing some crazy spins, Seungcheol trying to go as fast as possible, and Chan just clinging onto Jeonghan’s arm for dear life. “I’ll tell you what,” he leans forward like it’s a business proposition, “You said you wanted to go to the movies, right? Well they sell popcorn here. It’ll be just like the movies, without the movie.”

“Not bad.” There’s a grin on Seungkwan’s face, and yeah, that’s a lot better than tears. “You’re pretty smooth for a nerd.”

He wonders if this constitutes as flirting, and then decides it doesn’t really matter because he and Seungkwan are splitting a popcorn either way. They hop in the snack line, and apparently the guy leaning on the railing is one of Seungkwan’s friends, because Seungkwan jerks Hansol a little closer and scoffs, “I have a new best friend now, one who won’t _abandon me_.”

The guy, with silver hair and a dopey look on his face, just shrugs and laughs. “Alright, you go have fun with your ‘new best friend.’”

“I will.” Seungkwan cradles the new popcorn bag in his arms, shoving a handful into his mouth. Suddenly Hansol doesn’t want to rollerblade; Seungkwan is so obscure, so interesting, that Hansol follows him blindly back to the table.

He’s easy to talk with, never running out of things to say. They chat like old friends and not like Hansol had found him crying on the floor half an hour earlier. And Seungkwan starts this game, where he javelins popcorn into Hansol’s mouth (and Hansol swears he misses on purpose sometimes).

At one point, Seungkwan asks, “Is that your nerd gang?” and sure enough, the entirety of the blading team is peeking over the half-wall, Jeonghan with more enthusiasm than anyone.

“Ignore them,” Hansol pops another kernel past his lips while Seungcheol ducks behind the wall and whispers, _‘He should join the rollerblade team.’_

For another hour, Hansol and Seungkwan sit at the table and make simple conversation while the blading team teaches Chan to keep his legs steady and Seungkwan’s friends are doing god-knows-what. For another hour, Hansol lets himself forget about blading altogether and instead concentrates on his ‘new best friend’. For another hour, Hansol loses track of time and really, it hardly feels like an hour (but it does feel like a bizarre date).

He doesn’t let Seungkwan leave without his number and an invitation to the next competition. Later, Seungcheol tracks Hansol down and tells him, “This counts as skipping a practice, by the way. So I’m supposed to suspend you from our meet on Friday.”

Hansol just slips his blades back on and decides he doesn’t care.

**Author's Note:**

> My stupid ass keeps reading ‘blading’ as ‘balding’ like ‘yes hello we’re on a competitive balding team.’ But seriously I would totally join Seungcheol’s blading team sign me up  
> Cross-posted on AFF and I think I'm gonna post this on tumblr too bc it's short af  
> Also I kinda like the whole arcade-vibe so should I write more in this au?  
> [Me on Tumblr](http://melecs.tumblr.com/)  
> [Me on AFF](http://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view_author_stories/1131410/L)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] Just Roll With It](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15476727) by [the24thkey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the24thkey/pseuds/the24thkey)




End file.
